The difference is that the primer (which ignites the powder) is located in the center of the cartridge head in centerfires, whereas in rimfires, it is located (yup, you got ahead of me) in the rim.

These days, rimfire rifles are made only for very small cartridges, primarily the .22 Long Rifle, .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire and their even smaller cousins the .17 Hornady Rimfire and the .17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire.

A rifle in .22LR is perhaps the most widely owned and widely used firearm in the world. Trillions of rounds of .22LR are made and fired each year. Yup, trillions. It's is THE plinker, practice, small game and smallbore target cartridge of all time. The other three rimfires rounds are outstanding in their applicable - but a bit more limited - uses. None of them are suitable for any game hunting for animals larger than perhaps 15 pounds.

Centerfire rifles are for everything else on the planet. There are far too many cartridges to even begin mentioning here, but at least one will be perfect or more than adequate for any hunting or shooting task you can name. Advice on all this is plentiful on this board, if you can say why you need a rifle.

So if I get a CZ .22, (which that is what I was leaning towards), I should get a rimfire, and the other rilfe I want, like the Remington 700 30-06, I should get a centerfire. Ok thanks, I appreciate the help.

I shoot both CZ's and Remingtons and have nothing but good to say about them. I have a CZ 452 Lux 22 long rifle that's probably one of the most accurate 22 rifles I've owned over the last 45 years. You can now get them in both right and left hand models in several different configurations and with the 453 rimfire with the beautiful single set trigger that comes on all their centerfires now.

Here's my 452 22 long rifle. It wears a Weaver 2.5 to 10 Classic scope. You can get a five or ten shot clip and a single shot adaptor to start the kids out shooting with.

I also shoot a CZ 527 Varmint in 204 Ruger. This little varmint rifle does nice dime sized groups and just whacks the dickens out of coyotes and ground squirrels out well past 400 yards. It's a lot gun for the money. It gets an old Tasco 8 by 32 target scope for spring and summer ground squirrels and a couple of weeks ago I changed that out for a 3 by 9 for fall and winter coyote hunting.

Pistol, A .22lr is a rim fire, and the 30.06 is a centerfire. If you have not fired a centerfire cartridge before, the 30.06 is not the place to start. Recoil can be harsh. I started my Nephew on a .308 heavy barrel before he inlisted. After 1 round He was all set. He has now finished his second tour in Iraq. The .308 is much easier to shoot as far as centerfire rifles go. W/ 700 meter paper or gongs it is hard to beat. Do allot of research! What do you want to do w/ the rifle(s). Jim